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For the first time in 10 years, and the third time in its over 115 years of existence, the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA), the west coast affiliate of the Modern Language Association, will be meeting in Bellingham, Washington at Western Washington University. The PAMLA Conference will be co-sponsored by Western Washington University. Professor Andrea Gogrof, past President of PAMLA, is chair of the conference site committee, which includes professors from the Departments of English, Liberal Studies, and Modern & Classical Languages. PAMLA is dedicated to the advancement and diffusion of knowledge of ancient and modern languages, literatures, and cultures. With more than one hundred and sixty conference sessions taking place over the three-day conference (held over the Friday, Nov. 9 through Sunday, Nov. 11 weekend), and over six hundred papers and presentations on a wide range of scholarly topics, the PAMLA conference is sure to be an exciting event for Western’s students, faculty, and staff, all of whom are invited to attend the conference for free as long as they are not presenting a paper—presenters must pay a small fee.

The theme of the 2018 conference is “Acting, Roles, Stages.” As part of this theme, in addition to many sessions on topics including Vampires, Disney, Latinx Literature, French Literature, Folklore, Television, Food, African American Literature, P.T. Barnum, Indigenous Literature, Games, History and Literature, Post-Family Studies, Poetry, Autobiography, Literature and Religion, Queer, Lesbian, and Gay Literature, Composition and Rhetoric, Linguistics, the Bible, German Literature, Film, Ecocriticism, Twin Peaks, Spanish Literature, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Science Fiction, Chinese Literature, Greek and Latin Literature, the Holocaust, Immigration, Los Angeles, Italian Literature, and Children’s Literature, there will be papers and sessions on the conference theme dealing with acting as art and metaphor, role play and theatricality, the world stage and the public audience, performance and stagecraft, voice, and performativity.

The 2018 PAMLA conference will be attended by over 650 scholars from all over the US, Canada, and at least twelve other nations. Students and faculty from Western are welcome to attend a session or two, or the entire conference (the lunches do cost a bit extra, but there will be extra seats in the room for those who wish to come to hear the Friday Presidential Address or Saturday Plenary Address: ). To see the complete conference schedule go here: . Or come by the Miller Hall Collaborative Space on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, November 9-11, to receive a schedule of the many interesting sessions available.

While the entire conference is sure to be filled with intellectual and cultural opportunities, two of the highlights of this year’s PAMLA conference are:

1. The Creative Writers Spotlight, on Friday, Nov. 9, from 9:15-11 a.m., in Western’s Performing Arts Center Mainstage. This event is sure to be truly memorable, given that four stellar creative writers will be reading from their works and discussing their writing and process (book signings will follow). The event is free and open to all. Participating are Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rae Armantrout, author of Wobble, a 2018 National Book Award Finalist for Poetry; Juan Delgado, recipient of the Before Columbus Foundation’s 2013 American Book Award for Vital Signs; Western Washington University’s own creative writing professor Kristiana Kahakauwila, author of This is Paradise: Stories, a 2013 Barnes & Noble Discover Selection; and Western creative writing professor Jane Wong, author of Overpour (2016), and 2017 James W. Ray Distinguished Artist. Do please join us for this stimulating event, and invite your friends:  

2. Please join us for the PAMLA Forum, on Saturday, Nov. 10, from 5-6:30 p.m., in the Wilson Library Reading Room. This year’s Forum, “Acting, Roles, Stages,” will feature two speakers, Melanie Masterton Sherazi and Michelle Bloom, whose research considers fascinating transnational conduits in film, theater, and literature: how Rome offered a stage for African American artists at the beginning of the Civil Rights movement and the reciprocal relationship between French and Chinese cinema. We look forward to a wide-ranging discussion of the significance of dramatic performance in staging new directions in cultural, literary, and film and media studies.

Do please join us for the PAMLA Forum, a conference highlight:

For more information about the 2018 PAMLA Conference at Western Washington University over the November 9-11 weekend, please contact PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin: svonkin@netzero.com